The singer-songwriter talked to Teen Vogue about songwriting, what she reads, and being kind to yourself.

Singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett is Australia’s songwriter of the year, a Grammy nominee for Best New Artist, and winner of the ARIA award for her 2015 album titled Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, which also happened to sweep nearly every major year-end “best albums” list. She’s performed for thousands of people on a main stage at Coachella, and now she’ll be performing on Saturday Night Live’s season finale. She’s winning.

It’s surprising then, when she tells me about a time when she told a group of kids, “I’m not that good at songwriting” — when clearly, yes, by any measure of success she is very good at songwriting. Does this mean she isn’t confident? No, she says, elaborating by telling me that she’s just sees it as a daily struggle to “learn to be kind to yourself.” In her lyrics, the tension of this — wanting to be nice to yourself, but low-key hating yourself — is evident.

Case in point: On her arguably best-known song, “Pedestrian at Best,” she sings: “Put me on a pedestal and I'll only disappoint you. Tell me I'm exceptional I promise to exploit you. Give me all your money and I'll make some origami, honey. I think you’re a joke, but I don’t find you very funny.” It’s self-loathing and clever, yet confident enough to serve as both a warning and an invitation: I’ll mess you up, but you’ll have fun while I do it.

It’s that honesty that makes her music so successful, as compared to the optimistic pop of her peers that top the charts. A Courtney Barnett song gives you a character that you can relate to, and sometimes that character is an anti-hero.

We caught up with Courtney to ask her what she does find funny, how she feels about being in America, and how a group of young girls helped her not to say she’s “bad at songwriting” anymore.

*Teen Vogue: *Your album and song lyrics feel like a series of stories. So that makes us wonder: What do you read?

Courtney Barnett: I read lots of biographies and stuff about musicians, but also artists in general and stuff I'm interested in, like Leonardo da Vinci. Last year, I got this Sylvia Plath book of letters to her mum, which I love. And then I read The Bell Jar. … I read some Murakami. … I brought this book on this tour by Peggy Frew, she's an Australian author. … And I also bought the audiobook of Tina Fey. I've never done an audiobook, except when I was a kid. I thought it might be good because I like to walk a lot.

TV: Because you’re not from the U.S., what have you observed here that is different from where you grew up — whether it’s grating or inspiring? What do you miss most from home?

CB: When I grew up — I don't know how it happened — but I just had this negative image of America, like that the people were really loud. Maybe my dad was always like, "Damn Americans.” But everyone is so — well, not everyone — but a lot of people we meet are really positive and supportive, and really nice.

I miss my friends, my girlfriend and my cat when I'm away. Not so much stuff, though we brought a tube of Vegemite with us — you know Vegemite, it's like peanut butter spread.

TV: Can you not get that here?

CB: No, I don't think so. You have Marmite, or whatever, that's not as good as Vegemite. So we brought our own.

TV: What advice would you give to a young person who wants to break into something new? How do you have the confidence to do what you do?

CB: [That’s a] hard question … because I feel like I'm constantly trying to learn the same thing. I think it's important to learn to be kind to yourself.

So much of the time I spend telling myself I'm sh*t — you don't even notice you do it. Like, “I can't write,” or “I can't play guitar as good as that person.” I think it's just nice to focus on positives.

Jen, my girlfriend, and I spoke at Girls Rock Camp [an international organization that hosts camps for girls to learn to play music] a couple months ago, and the [organizers of the camp] were like, "There's only one rule, you've got to be positive around the kids…" It was really hard! I was like, “Yeah whatever,” but then they were like, "OK, how do you write a song?" And I was like, "Well, I'm not that good at songwriting, I don't really know what I'm doing, I don't really know how to play guitar that well." Then I was like “No, no, no!” [You have to remember to] be kind to yourself!